Asthma again

Caleb lasted a whole 9 months with no trips to the ER.  But asthma season seems to be upon us and he spend last Saturday at the ER.  After 3 treatments of albuterol, he still was in rough shape.  The ER gave him a super dose of albuterol and oral steroids and luckily we got to go home.  

And if you're wondering, yes he has painted nails.  He has 4 sisters, one of which had a surprise birthday party.  He didn't want to be left out!  They are painted black and orange for Halloween!  I approve. 

 His arsenal of medicines.  A friend pointed out that it's amazing he needs that many meds to do something most of is don't even think about...... breathe.  Singulair, Prevacid, Flonaise, Zyrtec, Albuterol, Flovent, Orapred.

Orapred is an oral steroid and it's making him a crazy person!  It's rather exhausting, but it's hilarious too!  On the way out of church, Elizabeth almost let the door close on his hand.  That turned him into a raging, purple Hulk.   He had a melt down the minute we got home from church because, "There's NOTHING to do and there has been NOTHING to do ALL day and NO ONE will play with me."  Then he turned into a rage monster when I told him we were having broccoli for dinner.  Normally he doesn't mind broccoli.  But broccoli is BAD NEWS when you have steroids in your system!  "WHAT?  We have to have THREE TREES?  I can't eat THREE!"  I told him maybe he could eat one of them raw.  He tried it and then started crying.  It was both sad and funny at the same time. Later, he walked by Katie who said, "Crocodile" to him as he was walking by.  Katie loves crocodiles and thinks it's a funny word.  She says it all the time and cracks up at herself.  Caleb knows this and has heard her say crocodile a hundred times.  This time it reduced him to uncontrollable tears.  "Katie said crooooo-co-diiiile at meeeee!"   I couldn't help but laugh! I hope we survive Caleb on Steroids.  I'm really glad he's normally a sweet, happy, easy-going guy!

Anna's Birthday

Or should I say, "Birth-week"?  I don't know how she does it, but she always manages to squeeze in every last drop of birthday fun.  And her birthday celebrations manage to span days, rather than a day.  

On her actual birthday, Blake took her and a friend to a Royals baseball game:

That was Birthday Celebration #1.  We told her this year that she couldn't have a huge, big-to-do party.  She has had so many huge parties, and this year it was her younger siblings' turn.  She was pretty bummed.  And I felt bad that she was so down, so I decided to throw her a surprise party.  Not a huge, big-to-do surprise party.  Just a fun, "friends get together and hang out and eat food and surprise Anna" party.  It went amazingly well and Anna was SO happy!  The best part is that it didn't require that much work (or money - yay!). 

The friends hiding, waiting to surprise Anna:

 This is how Katie decided to hide, under the kitchen table.  Lol!

The surprise! (ETA, darn I can't make the video work right.  But at least it plays it in fast motion.)

Anna was so surprised and so happy.  You could tell she couldn't decide weather to laugh or cry or both.  (The first of the video is Katie making clicking noises while everyone was quiet.  Then someone told her to be quiet and she said sorry and everyone laughed.)

Playing Apples to Apples.  They played this for almost an hour and couldn't stop laughing.

Then they played spoons and painted nails (no pictures).  Then they ate donuts.  Anna requested donuts instead of cake (good choice imo!)  Here they are singing happy birthday to her: 

 Katie did a Celine Dion solo for everyone:

 Presents

 Lots of laughter and smiles. 

  

It was a FUN party!  And so EASY!  And best of all, Anna was happy and felt loved.  :)

Fall Festival

Our orthodontist puts on a Fall Festival every year for patients and their families.  It's all free (well, besides the horrendous cost of braces!). and is so much fun!  They really go all out - bounce houses, carnival games, hay rides, magicians, balloon animals and dinner.  The kids get prizes at every game. And they're not just tiny, cheapy prizes - they're really good prizes.  Things like glow sticks, flashing rings, stuffed animals (there's a snake around Lydia's neck in the pictures).  The kids had a great time!  

Michael and Blake went to the Renaissance Festival on this same day, so that's why you won't see them in any of the pictures.  And Nathan was working.  He's working 55-60 hours a week right now to save up for his mission.  He's getting close!

I didn't take many pictures because we were having so much fun.  And because I was holding all the loot.  Mom the Pack Mule.  Here are a few pictures though:

Michael Senior Pictures

Michael is a SENIOR!  We just got done with all the crazy and festivities for Nathan and now we turn around and here comes Michael.  He didn't want to make a big deal for his Senior pictures.  He doesn't like big-to-do events.  So we had my friend bring her nice camera to the park and take some pictures for us.  I think they turned out pretty good for the price (free!).   Here are some of our favorites:  

The first one is the picture he picked for the year book.  Year book ads are EXPENSIVE so we went with the cheapest option that only allowed one picture.  It was still $145.  Crazy!

  

Check out his awesome blue eyes!  

  

   

  And then of course he had to climb the tree.

  

Caleb's Star Wars Birthday Party

Caleb is SIX!  That sounds so old.  Happy birthday to my smart, funny, sensitive, rule-following, people-pleasing, loving, snuggling, amazing Caleb!

He brought treats to class.  He was a bit nervous since he was the first birthday celebration of the year and didn't quite know how everything worked.  He also doesn't like to be the center of attention.

 The birthday frog sang an Elvis song to him.  He though that was the funniest thing ever!

 So did his classmates.  You can SEE the laughter in this picture.  It makes me laugh every time I see it.  

He had his first big friend party.  We invited all the boys from his school class and his church class.  Yes, I'm crazy!  But luckily it was on Labor Day weekend, so not everyone could come.  (Darn.  P.S. I kinda planned it that way so we could avoid hurt feelings, but still not have tons of kids.)

Helping make cupcakes for his party.  He requested chocolate cream cheese frosting.

 These were supposed to have an awesome Darth Vader cupcake holder center piece.  That's one of the reasons we did cupcakes.  It didn't show up in time.  Grr.  Caleb and the kids didn't know or care, but I did.  It looked kinda lame that we just had cupcakes sitting in the middle of the table.  Oh well, they tasted good!

For the party games, we did Jedi Training!

First: Design a Droid.   This was supposed to be a quick thing to do while waiting for guests to arrive. The kids lasted a lot longer than I planned at this activity.  I thought they'd take like 3 minutes.  I kept having to rush them so we could get on to the fun stuff!

Then we had Laser Skills.  They had to test their skills at dodging lasers from Storm Troopers.

They were so excited waiting in line!

Next they had to do the Lava Walk to see if they could cross a river of lava without falling in (from Star Wars 3).  It looked like lava in real life, but once I see these pictures it kinda looks like ketchup and mustard.  Luckily kids have good imaginations.

Then they had to destroy the Death Star with dart gun "lasers".  

 

Then they had to go in the garbage pit.  (Star Wars 4) and find the sea creature.  It kinda looks snake-like in the movie, so I got big snakes and buried them in the "garbage".  I had all my local friends save their clean/recycling garbage for a week.  It's going to be interesting when I put all that garbage out for recycling.  I wonder what the neighbors will think.  It was hard to get pictures of the garbage pit.  These just don't do it justice.  It was filled with garbage as high as the kids and covered with a sheet.  This was one of their favorite games of the party.

Searching for the sea creature.

Success!

The birthday boy was SO excited for this day that he woke me up early.  He  NEVER wakes me up - he usually just entertains himself.  But he came in my room and said, "Mom, I have my Jedi cloak on.  How long till the party?"  Poor kid - 7 hours!  He asked me every hour how long.  At one point he flopped on the floor and said, "It will NEVER get here!"

  

Lydia dressed up as Princess Leia.  Anna was a Jedi and Elizabeth was Darth Maul.  (She got too hot and took off her cloak.  That's why all the pics of Elizabeth only show her in a black shirt and black shorts.

 Presents and cake.  Jedis need refueling!   We also had Yoda Soda at the end of the party when they were hot and tired.  One of the reasons Caleb wanted a Star Wars party is because he loved the idea of Yoda Soda. It made him laugh.  (Yoda Soda = lime sherbet and Sprite).

 

They all passed their Jedi training and became Official Jedis.  Which means each of them got a light saber to battle with.  Michael the Awesome made these for me.  Each light saber has a different handle.  He's way more creative and patient than I am - I would have just done them all the same.  The kids loved that they were unique.  Michael also volunteered to be our Special Guest.  He trained them all in light saber handling.  (I think I posted a video awhile back of how he can spin sticks.  He's amazing!) 

The kids LOVED the light sabers and Michael!

 The minute they got a light saber, they took off after to battle Michael.  Michael made himself a double-bladed light saber and all the kids wanted it.
Michael was a good sport with 12 on 1 and held his own pretty well.

 Caleb got lots of Legos as gifts, which they all played with the next day.

 It was a FUN party, but man was I TIRED when it was over!

Happy Birthday Caleb!!!!